


As Real As We Want To Be

by AifasInTheSky



Series: (See You) On The Other Side [2]
Category: HLVRAI - Fandom, Half-Life VR but the AI is Self-Aware - Fandom
Genre: (er you can read it as shippy or gen), Fluff, Fluff without Plot
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-30
Updated: 2020-06-30
Packaged: 2021-03-04 02:42:11
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 979
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24996310
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AifasInTheSky/pseuds/AifasInTheSky
Summary: A walk at the park becomes a little adventure.
Relationships: Bubby & Dr Coomer (HLVRAI)
Series: (See You) On The Other Side [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1839427
Comments: 11
Kudos: 85





	As Real As We Want To Be

Today is a good day, Harold decides.

It's not a particularly good one, per se, but it's definitely a day that he hopes stays in his memory, selective as it is. He's making use of the cloudy day to take a walk with dear Bubby, whose delicate skin benefits from the lack of direct exposure to sunlight. Bubby had grumbled about it at first, but Harold knew how much Bubby secretly loved experiencing the world outside Black Mesa now that he could. And he definitely needed the fresh air himself. So, very little convincing was needed in order to get the both of them on their way to the park.

Bubby isn’t so vocal about it as Harold himself is, but he’s, indeed, fascinated by nature. Every time they go out, he watches Bubby examine curiously the various plants and flowers in people’s front yards, follow the path of butterflies with an inquisitive look. They do, though, do their best to stay out of the way from bees and wasps, after the—ahem—unfortunate incident with the garden on fire.

Harold will never tire of showing Bubby around.

He knows this world is, despite its heightened detail, as real as the one in his memories. But today, it doesn’t feel like that. Today he can breathe the moisture in the air; he can feel the rough texture of the bark of the tree he reached to touch. He can hear the hurried steps of people attempting to get home before the rain. And he knows Bubby does, too, for the way he clenches his hand, the way he looks around, the way his lips quirk up in a secret little smile.

Dogs tug around their owners all around the park. Dogs are fascinating creatures, full of energy, and the threat of rain won’t hinder their enthusiasm. He wonders, briefly, if there’s someone out there, watching them as curiously as he’s watching these dogs, wondering why these silly people refuse to stay inside.

“What the—Aaahh!”

A dog that ran away from his owner crashes onto Bubby and lands him on the floor on his butt. Bubby curses, glaring furiously at the worried owner of the dog, who’s apologizing profusely as she runs behind her dog.

Harold chuckles as he lifts him off the floor with ease, making him sit on his shoulders—he knows they must be making a scene, but why act fragile when they’re strong? Why act proper when they’re, well, not? Why act anything other than what they truly are when they’re here, and alive?

“Put me down, Harold!”

“No,” he says with a smile, squeezing Bubby’s ankles. He hopes it’s because he finds it reassuring, and not a show of strength, that he relents. He’s never able to forget the downsides of his own strength.

He gladly finds out that’s not what’s in Bubby’s mind at all when he directs him towards a nearby pine tree.

“Come on, I wanna grab one of those.” The pinecones look at them from a foot above, looking tantalizingly close.

Something makes a click in his head, and, eagerly as always, he can’t help but start speaking.

“A cone is an organ on plants in the division Pinophyta (conifers) that contains the reproductive structures. The familiar woody cone is the female cone, which produces seeds. The male cones, which produce pollen—”

In the meantime, Bubby leans against the tree in order to stand in his shoulders. Harold readjusts with ease, still talking, and Bubby starts stretching as far as he can reach, fingers grazing a big, open cone that’s almost intact.

“Come on, don’t be a little bitch—”

“The male cone is structurally similar across all conifers, differing only in small ways (mostly in scale arrangement) from species to species. Extending out from a central axis—”

They hear a rumble. Both of them look around. The park is deserted now, and the sky is very, very dark.

“Oh, shit—”

They both jump away just in time for a bolt of lightning to strike the pine tree they were under. Harold hears a deafening crack, and then nothing except a loud ringing. He knows he’s yelling Bubby’s name, though he can’t hear it.

Bubby is lying on the ground, face down, lifting the pinecone in the air in a pose that would be comical if it weren’t for the dire situation they were in. Harold could still feel the rumbling of thunder beneath his feet.

“Hurry!” he yells, and lifts the man by the waist.

He realizes he’s ran a square away from the tree on fire when he feels a tug on his shirt. “Wait…” he hears faintly.

It’s lucky that he’s been running on the road, because next thing he knows he’s sitting inside a blue car next to Bubby, who’s flooring the accelerator while lifting his foot from the clutch pedal and they’re both speeding down the streets as fast as… Well, he hopes faster than lightning.

He honest-to-God had forgotten that dear Bubby can materialize a car from thin air.

He starts laughing, grasping the seat of the car to avoid tumbling inside the car. A seatbelt soon embraces him with care. Tears fall from his eyes, adrenaline pumping through his veins in a way it hasn’t since their escape form Black Mesa. But it’s not exactly the same, no. No one is after them. They’re not fighting anyone. They will be alright.

Bubby flips off the flashing clouds.

At home, while they both drink hot cocoa and dry themselves off in front of the fireplace, Harold enjoys not only the novelty warmth of the fire but the old, comfortable one of companionship.

Today it doesn't matter that the world is not real.

He looks at Bubby, fast asleep at his side, pinecone in his arms. It hasn't mattered for a while, not really, he guesses.

**Author's Note:**

> This is... Not my best, but I wanted to write sth for this fandom and I love the idea of these two enjoying the world outside Black Mesa. And the headcanon that Tommy built a universe for them to live. Yeehaw.
> 
> Coomer is as self-aware as always. And I added transformer!Bubby because yes.
> 
> I'll probably write more stuff, but when AO3 decides to separate the Half-Life tag from the HLVRAI one, because I don't want to contribute to the swarming of the HL tag rip.
> 
> Thank you very much for reading!


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